Egg white product and process of preparing the same



Patented July I1, 1939 9 EGG WHITE PRODUCT vAND PROCESS OF PREPARING THE SAME Verne n. Littlefield, Beverley Hills, CaliL, as-

signor to Armour and Company, Chicago, 111., a corporation of Illinois No Drawing. Application August 11, 1937, Serial No. 158,576

18 Claims. (Cl. 99-113) This invention relates to egg white products the dried egg whites over long periods of time. and processes of preparing the same, and it com- In many relations the presence of aluminum prises, as a new material, a dried egg white of compounds in the egg white is entirely unobjecacid reaction containing an aluminum compound tionable, although when I wish to prepare an and it further comprises processes wherein liquid egg white material free of added substances I egg whites are acidified, a water soluble, nonfind it better to practice the processes of the toxic aluminum compound added thereto, and aforesaid application. The presence of alumithe entire mixture dried. nuin compounds in the egg white is quite unob- Dried egg whites are used to a large extent in jectionable when the egg white is to be admixed the food industry, frequently as additions to bakwith baking powders, when the egg white is to 10 ing powder, prepared flours, and the like, but be added to flour to form dry batter mixtures, more usually the dried egg-whites are dissolved which, when milk or water is added thereto, in water and the aqueoussolution whipped to would give cake-making batters, and usually ungive foams for addition to baking batters as objectionable when the whites, after reconstitulevening and binding agents. 4 tion with water, are whipped to give foams used 3 The preparation of a satisfactory dried egg I as leavening agents. I shall now describe dewhite product is attended with considerable diftailed ways of preparing my egg white product. ficulty although in my co-pending application, he q d gg White, which can be either freshly Serial No; 158,431, filed August 10, 1937, 1 have cracked from the eg t aw d frozen egg w t 20 described and claimed superior ways of preparis first strained through a filter to free it of any 20 ing a dried egg white material which, when rebits of shell, c e a ae stringy P t o s. Then constituted with water, gives foams of large the egg White is run into a a ge vat, the usual volume and unusually fine stability. All 'comcapacity of which is about 15,000 pounds, and an mercially prepared dried egg whites, with the acid solution is added with agitation until the exception of those described in my aforesaid pH of the egg white is decreased to about 3.9 or 25 application, are fermented before drying. And The pH can be decreased to as low as 3 when the egg'whites of myaforesaid application, 9.1- a final pr duct having a m what acid tastethough not fermented, are allowed to age after is u j b e. ,pH values higher than 4 can drying sincesuch aging improves the whipping also be used, and the D range can be fixed at qualities of the egg white. Egg whites made by about 3 to 5 with the optimum about 3.9 to 4.1. 3. fermentation methods are not aged after drying e e a any different acids which can be and the whipping qualities of the fermented, used for the purpose of acidifying-the egg whites dried whites are not improvedjby aging. Feralthough I find that tartaric acid is the most dementation, however, resultsin putrefaction with sirable acid. Instead of using tartaric acid I the development of objectionable odor.. The an add tr la tic, m p sp furi 85 processes of the aforesaid application make a or hydrochloric. None of these have any effect satisfactory product without fermentation by on the egg albumin itself, but they markedly employing a period of aging, and also regulation modify the other proteins of the white. The of hydrogen ion concentration to certain definite acid reduces the viscosity of the egg. white so values during the acidification of the egg white that it is as fluid as water. I can also use mix 40 prior to drying. tures of acids, such as mixtures of tartaric and .The present invention relates to a dried egg lactic,-citric and phosphoric and the like. When white product which has superior whipping using tartaric acid about 8 pounds thereof discharacteristics immediately after drying, but solved in Water, a e added each 1,000 Pounds without the necessity for. fermentation of the of e material since this gives DH f about 45 egg white prio'r to drying, or the necessity for a 3.9 to 4. When using stronger inorganic acids, 'period of aging after drying as described in my such as hydrochloric, I prefer to first dilute them aforesaid application. The present invention is with water, advantageously about 5 to 10 volumes based upon the observation that if water soluble, of water for each volume of acid. During the non-toxic aluminum compounds are added to acidification it is desirable to take small samples 50 acidified egg whites and the whole mass immefor determining the actual hydrogen ion concendiately dried, the dried product will give foams tration of the mixture as the acidification proof pronounced stability without the necessity for ceeds. aging or fermentation. Thus,I am able to avoid, After acidifying the liquid egg whites in the by the present invention, the necessity for aging manner stated I then add a water soluble non- 55 ous sodium and potassium alums and mixtures Quite probably the aluminum salt hythereof. drolyzes to some extent so that the final dried productwill contain at least a part of the aluminum as aluminum hydroxide. The actual amount of aluminum present as combined aluminum per pound of dried product should be about to 4j'grams. One and one-half grams of aluminuin' is enough to give high whipping volume and stability and those practicing my invention will have no difficulty in determining the proper amount 'of any aluminum salt to be added from the fact that the final dried product should have about 2 grams of combined aluminum per pound.-

The egg white solids themselves amount to about 12% to 13% of the total liquid egg white treated. After the addition of the aluminum compound the mixture is thoroughly stirred to keep the materials in suspension and the whole liquid mass is run through a filter to remove any large particles of flocculent materials. Undoubtedly, the

large amount of albumin present acts as a protective colloid so .that the aluminum salt and any aluminum hydroxide formed by hydrolysis is maintained in suspensiiin. lhe straining operation referred to is" for the'purpose of removing any flocculent material and is'simply employed to prevent clogging of the nozzles of the spray drier when spray drying is used as thedrying method.

Otherwise, straining or screening after the addition of the aluminum compound is optional.

The quantity of the aluminum compound added can vary over wide limits but for best results no less than about 1 gram of aluminmn for each pound of dried product should be present. The quantity can be increased greatly but an aluminum content above 2 grams per pound does not improve the foam stability enough to warrant the added cost of production. I

The mixture of liquid egg white, aluminum compound and acid is then'spray dried, or pan dried in the usual way for drying egg whites. Egg whites have long been dried by spray drying methods so I shall not describe this procedure in detail.

The final dried product has a slightly acid reaction but is entirely free of any odor. This is true even tho'u'glr" ""aw egg white itself may have had a slightly o'if -'od or referred to as musty. The removal of odors from? the original egg white is inherent in my process and so far as I am aware no one has-been able to accomplish odor removal in any other type of egg treating process. The final dried product, as it comes from the drier and reconstituted with water, willgive foams which have superior foam stability, such that no breakdown of the foam occurs for a satisfactory period of time, usually thirty minutes after thorough whipping' Possibly'the aluminum compound present functions as a kind of drying agent to increase the water-holding prop- It is unnecessary to observe any particular 1 temperature control during the acidification and treatment of the egg whites prior to drying. The

addition of the acid and alum or other aluminum salts effectively prevents putrefaction. Moreaieaovo over, the egg whites are treated so rapidly that no opportunity for fermentation can occur therein. I can, however, operate at temperatures as low as 45 to 50 F. and as high as 75 or 80 FL, and, consequently,-do not wish to be limited to any particular range of temperatures. Mostalways my process is carried out at ordinary room temperature;

The acids I add are first dissolved in water to insure quicker and better mixing. Thus, for example, I make up a tartaric or citric acid solution and add this to the white. Likewise, if can use acid salts rather than the pure acids. 1 can, for example, use acid tartratesfsuoh as potassium hydrogen tartrate, and other acid salts and achieve approximately the same results. My

final dried product will have an acid reaction,

not prepared to state the exact state of aluminumsalt since it is conceivable that some of the aluminum may be in the product as the aluminum salt added, another portion may be there as aluminum hydroxide and still further amounts of aluminum may be present as an albumin salt of complex structure. Double salts of aluminum, tartaric acid and the albumin may also exist and the only way I have of adequately defining my dried product with reference to theamount of 1 aluminum is by referring to the amount of com= bined aluminum in a pound of the dried material. This can be determined easily by analytical methods.

My invention is also applicable to the treatment of egg whites from which most of the proteins other than egg albumin have been removed. Thus I can acidify the egg whites, allow any precipitate formed to settle as a sludge, draw off the clear acidified white, add the aluminum salt thereto and dry. The resulting product has high foam stability. Consequently, in the appended claims, egg white is intended to embrace raw liquid egg white and also liquid egg whites from which materials insoluble when the whites are liquefied by acidification have been separated.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is:

l. A dried egg white having a pH of between about 3 and 5 and having about 1 to 4 grams of aluminum hydroxide per pound of dried material.

2. A dried egg white containing smallamounts of tartaric acid and aluminum hydroxide.

3. A dried egg white containing small amounts of aluminum hydroxide and having an acid reaction.

4i. The process of preparing a dried egg white material which comprises acidifying liquid egg whites, adding a water soluble, non-toxic alum= inum compound thereto, and drying the resulting mixture.

5. The process of preparing an egg white material which comprises acidifying liquid egg Whites, adding ammonium aluminum alum thereto, and drying the mixture.

6. The process of preparing an egg white material which comprises adding tartaric acid to liquid egg whites, admixing a Water soluble, nontoxic aluminum compound therewith, and drying the resulting mixture.

7. The process of preparing an egg white material which comprises adding tartaric acid to liquid egg whites, adding an aluminum alum thereto, and drying the mixture.

8. The process of preparing an egg white material which comprises adding tartaric acid and ammonium aluminum alum to liquid egg whites, and drying the mixture.

9. The process which comprises acidifying liquid egg whites until the pH thereof is between about 3 and 5, adding a water soluble, non-toxic aluminum compound thereto and drying the mixture.

10. The process of preparing an egg white material which comprises acidifying liquid egg whites with tartaric acid until the pH lies between about 3 and 5, adding an aluminum alum thereto, and drying the mixture.

11. The process of preparing an egg white material which comprises adding tartaric acid to liquid egg whites until the pH is about 3.9 to 5, admixing a small amount of ammonium alumi num alum therewith, and drying the mixture.

12. The-process of preparing an egg white material which comprises adding tartaric acid to liquid egg whites in the proportions of about 8 pounds of tartaric acid to each 1,000 pounds of liquid egg white, admixing ammonium aluminum alum therewith in proportions of about 9 pounds of alum to each 1,000 pounds of egg white, and drying the mixture.

13. A dried egg white containing small amounts of an aluminum alum and having an acid reaction.

14. A dried egg white containing small amounts of ammonium aluminum alum and having an acid reaction.

15. A dried egg white containing small amounts of tartaric acid and an aluminum alum.

16. A dried egg white containing small amounts of tartaric acid and ammonium aluminum alum.

-17. The process of preparing an egg white material which comprises acidifying liquid egg whites. adding an aluminum alum thereto, and drying the resulting mixture,

18. The process of preparing an egg white material which comprises adding an aluminum alum to a liquid egg white having a pH of between about 3 and 5, and drying the mixture.

VERNE D. LI'I'ILEFIELD. 

